Among the significant documentation provided for the Games was the programme, but in fact there were two.   The one least seen was the ‘Media Copy’ and we’ll have a look at that first.   I have a number of copies of both – almost all from Des Yuill but a couple from David Bowman – and this one was chosen because it was for the day of the marathon races, men’s and women’s.   The Media Copy ran to 24 pages of thin, matt finish paper, not ‘built to last’ so to speak and it was issued to ALL officials and to Press, TV and Radio.   It had all the information you needed but was a thin, flimsy document.  When you opened the document up, the first information was about the officials with comprehensive lists.

Then came basic technical information …

Then came the details of the day’s events, after only Seven pages including the cover.

This particular programme belonged to David Bowman who was largely responsible for organising the marathon, as he had been in the 1970 Games and as such it had an insert not generally available.   This listed the officials for the event in great detail – the four sheets that follow have David’s notes on the day.

Even a cursory glance at the list of officials above reveals many well kent names in Scottish athletics who were prepared to perform all sorts of tasks to keep the show on the road – George King and Bil Stoddart from Greenock Wellpark, Tommy Boyle, Tom O’Reilly, Tom Stevenson, Tom Williamson, Alastair Macfarlane, Dunky McFarlane, many, many more.

The programme continued

Every day the programme contained the results of the previous day’s events –

That was the media copy of the programme – not many left now of the hundreds that were printed.   It was basic information – lists of officials, technical information, events of the day, yesterday’s results and the people in charge of each event had an event specific insert.   This one was free of course …..

The copy sold to the public had 60 pages of strong, shiny paper, 32 single page adverts, two double page adverts and a list of advertisers.  It contained everything that was in the Media Copy.  The adverts were for firms many and varied – 4 breweries and 5 distilleries for a start along with many prominent Scottish firms such as Wang in Cumbernauld, and international companies – Nikon, Rank Xerox, British Telecom, Coca-Cola, Omega.   Obviously meant to be kept for a souvenir.   Cost was 75 pence.   Des gave me copies of both for most days.

The following comprehensive list of Stothard’s races was drawn up by Alex Wilson – there is always a wealth of research involved in compiling such a list and we are grateful to him for it.

The Veteris editorial in the July 1974 edition is interesting because it was written at a time when Veterans athletics were in their infancy.   The issues raised in this editorial were crucial to the development of the sport and deserve a bit of attention.

Alastair Wood had a wonderful career as a distance runner with international vests over at least three distances on the track as well as on the roads and over the country.   One race that is possibly not as well remembered as it might be is his victory in the World Veterans Marathon held in Paris in 1974.   Thanks to Colin Young sending the programme, the report is below.

An excellent time against top class opposition and another World Championship for Scotland!

The report continues:

And the results

For those of the present generation, the old notion of amateurism v professionalism is uncharted territory.   Athletes in the twenty first century find it hard to imagine runners not getting money prizes – even children are able to win money in the Highland Games circuit.   But for many, many years money was taboo.   The belief, not entirely without foundation in their experience, brought corruption in its wake.   In the 1890’s several athletes were banned for accepting expenses and schemes such as ‘ringing’ (several athletes agreeing among themselves to pool their prize money and then share it out between them) and deciding who was going to win were often indulged in.    In the twenty first century with big money prizes on offer and obscene financial deals available to winners in the major Games has led to the abuse of drugs, etc.    However the knock-on effect on everyday athletes was disproportionate.   There is the famous story of the child who won a packet of fruit gums being banned from amateur athletics.    I have just bought a book called “The Ghost Runner” by Bill Jones about John Tarrant who had, as a 17 year old got £17 in expenses as a boxer being totally banned from amateur athletics for life.   He ran in races, having changed behind a hedge or some trees and more often than not won them.  It’s a book worth reading.    I’ll come back to him.   Some of the situations experienced by athletes of the 50’s and 60’s are recounted below.   The latest addition is about the late nineteenth century professionalism and corruption in the sport in Scotland and comes largely from the official history of the SAAA’s by John Keddie.

This first piece was written by Hugh Barrow on what was for a long time an aspect of the sport that we could have well done without.   It was something that I knew about, disapproved of but which very seldom, if ever, bothered me.   Hugh had a talent and attitude that brought it to his attention and the tailpiece of his article is most interesting – and the mindset is probably incomprehensible to the modern athlete.   Hugh speaks:

Not so long ago, well maybe slightly longer ago than one would wish, there existed in Scottish athletics a form of apartheid between those who ran for money and those of the so-called amateur code and woe betide those who crossed the great divide.    That sounds simple but it was certainly not that.  A boy who accepted something like 20p in new money for a Sunday school race could lose his amateur status for life such was the draconian line taken by the Amateur authorities.   All this stemmed from the birth of the SAAA in 1883 born as a reaction to corruption in Victorian athletics, sometimes called Pedestrianism, including drugs, betting and race fixing.   Nothing new there you may say.   From that time to the 1970’s that body (the SAAA) saw itself as the guardian of the amateur code and woe betide anybody who crossed the line.   You were not even allowed to compete against the pros even though you yourself did not receive any cash prize such were the “contamination rules”.   At one point you could not compete in amateur athletics if you were a PE teacher and professional footballers who went to Jordanhill College to train as teachers could not represent the College at athletics.

The professional meetings/games tended to be in the Highlands and in the Borders while the amateur meetings tended to be in the Central Belt.   There were exceptions but that was the trend.   The professional games were often more amateur in spirit that the amateur meetings.   But that was the strangeness of it all.   It all hinged round accepting prize money instead of prizes. Even though the prizes could well exceed the prize money, it was the principle.   Ways of getting round the rules became part of the folklore.   Whilst broken-time payments eased professionalism into soccer, and saw the birth of Rugby League, more devious methods were adopted in athletics.   Amateur athletes sometimes ran under assumed names or in disguise at pro games to avoid the authorities.   One well-known field events athlete was caught out by his photo appearing in a Glasgow paper even though he had changed his name for the day.

Of course at the top level, appearance money also came into play especially in Europe.   One well-known Olympic gold medallist appeared in Dublin and proceeded to set a world record for which he was due a substantial purse.

Hugh appeared on the Scotsport television programme in 1966 (after all the hassle that Tarrant suffered as described below) and was contacted the following morning by Rab Foreman of the SAAA telling him that any money had to be repaid –  Hugh had to send the cheque for £1:1:0 back to STV!    The cheque and the letter are shown here – once the link is re-established, for a proper view, click on each picture in turn.

Hugh ran in many races in all sorts of places but on the subject of rewards for running and drawing in the crowds he has this to say about a race at Hawick in the mid 1960s: “In the aftermath of the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, where both Alan Simpson (Rotherham) and John Whetton (Sutton) both made the final of the 1500m, they became the dominant force in British in the middle distance scene at a time when ‘invitation miles’ were highlights in the programme for many meetings the length and breadth of the country.   However  Whetton, the King of the Boards’, was dominant indoors and Simpson, the ‘Head Waiter’, dominated outdoors.    This outdoors domination of Simpson led to promoters starting to lose interest in putting on invitation miles so it was felt that Whetton had to get an outdoor win over his rival to whet spectator appetite.   So on a June Friday evening in 1965, we arrived at Mansefield Park, Hawick, for the Common Riding Invitation Mile.   The field also included former world record holder Derek Ibbotson, along with the likes of Teviotdale’s Craig Douglas, VP’s Graham Peters and myself.   It was felt that a Whetton win would help the attendance when the show rolled on to the Rockingham Miners’ Gala Day in Barnsley scheduled for the following day.   On a tight five laps to the mile grass track   laid out on the rugby pitch, such was the dominance of the dynamic duo, it was agreed that Whetton would edge out Simpson coming off the last bend.   However Graham Peters was not in the script and boxed Whetton in.   I can still hear him shout to Simpson that he had to go it alone.   As commentator we had the legendary Bill McLaren and although he sure knew his rugby he was a bit off the pace when it came to running and got a bit confused by what was happening.   probably just as well.   For the record:    1.  A Simpson   4:03.7;    2.   J Whetton   4:04.4;   3.   H Barrow   4:06.0

John Tarrant was a different case and his story is told in detail in the book referred to above and also in the earlier book produced by ‘Athletics Weekly’ shown here.

John as a young man was very energetic and took up boxing as an outlet for the energy and maybe anger at the hand he had been dealt as a child.   It was a more glamorous sport than football with long reports on Randolph Turpin v Sugar Ray Robinson and the money available.   He joined a local club and did some training, including roadwork, and was talked into a couple of bouts against friends in the same club and a couple of guys from other clubs.   Altogether he gained £17 in expenses before he decided he would rather be a runner – he enjoyed the road work and had a natural talent.   That meant joining a club so he applied to join Salford Harriers, his local club.   He filled in the application and in the space asking if he had ever earned money for any sporting activity, he swithered for a long time before telling the truth.   His form came back with his 5/- membership form – he couldn’t join.    The area AAA’s Committee said that since he had been a boxer who had earned money he would have to be cleared by his local Amateur Boxing Association Committee.   They had a reciprocal arrangement with them and could not accept him as an amateur unless the ABA gave him clearance.    This was not forthcoming.   he was desperately keen to run so he turned up at a couple of races in his vest and shorts but covered with a long overcoat and a cap pulled down over his eyes.   When the race started he removed the ‘disguise’ and joined in.   Officials tried to pull him out of the race without success and he led for most of it.   The Express newspaper gave him the title of ‘The Ghost Runner’ because he ran without a number, never appeared in the results and was totally ignored by the establishment.    He got on well with the other runners, spectators liked to see him in action and soon promoters realised that an appearance by the ghost added to the attraction of their race.   As the momentum built up he was invited to appear on David Coleman’s Sportsnight  programme.   The interview was sympathetic and at the end he was wished good luck by Coleman.    He was contacted by the AAA’s who asked for the money to be repaid!    He was not an amateur by their lights but he couldn’t accept money for a TV interview.   The sum involved was £1:18:0 [£1:90].  The Gordian Knot of acceptance as an amateur was cut by the recognition, rather late in the day, that since he had never ever actually been a paid up member of the ABA, he didn’t need their clearance!    After three years of being a ghost, he was accepted into the amateur fold.   [While he was banned and after the big movement for his clearance had really gained momentum, he had been invited to a race and instead of a number he wore a card reading ‘GHOST’]     The new book is very good, the AW one is out of print but he was a remarkable man and I can’t recommend his story too highly for anyone wanting to know about the divide and more importantly about this man and his part in helping bring down the wall.

Graham MacIndoe sent these two links to articles about Tarrant:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/john-tarrant-sad-shadow-of-the-ghost-runner-still-stalks-the-track-2305959.html

and

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Ghost-Runner-Bill-Jones/978145966065

So there you have it!!!   Hugh Barrow and John Tarrant both had to give back the money paid for a TV interview.     The situation did provide some lighter moments – not always for officialdom, however.

For instance there was the time when AAA’s supremo Jack Crump went to Ireland in the immediate post-war period to investigate rumours of illegal payments being made to athletes.   Following his investigation, he was about to board a flight back to London when somebody rushed forward and thrust a box of eggs into his hand and Press photographer snapped it for the record.    The significance?   Eggs were still rationed in Britain!    No more was heard of that investigation!

The Continental take on the ‘shamateur’ business was quite straightforward.   When athletes travelled to their big races, the were awarded prizes such as refrigerators, washing machines, television sets, etc  on the Saturday after the race; these ‘trophies’ were then sold at a special sale on the Sunday and the proceeds given to the owner (ie the runner who had won them!    The picture below is of Lachie Stewart with his prize from the race at Elgoibar in Spain before he sold it on.

“On 2nd November 1893 the General Committee of the SAAA appointed a sub-Committee ‘to enquire into various alleged abuses in amateur athletics’.   The sub-Committee comprised: Donald C Brown (West of Scotland Harriers) – vice president of the Association;   Alex MacNab (Clydesdale Harriers); Farquhar Matheson (Abercorn FC); James Caw (Edinburgh Harriers) and David S Duncan (Royal High School FC) who acted as secretary.   In the following two months the Committee held seven meetings – four in Glasgow and three in Edinburgh – at all of which various representatives of Sports-holding clubs, Association officials and prominent competitors were interviewed.   In all, thirty one witnesses appeared before the Committee, three of whom were recalled, while signed statements were received from another three who were were unable to attend personally.   All the evidence accumulated from these investigations was distilled into findings submitted to the General Committee on 15th January, 1894.   These findings revealed a none-too-healthy state of affairs: 

(1) The payment of competitors expenses, including Hotel expenses, was general throughout Scotland, but only in the case of prominent athletes from a distance.   This applied particularly to prominent English athletes who appeared at meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh but applied also to Scots athletes who competed at Blackburn and Sunderland at various times between 1889 and 1893l

(2)   It was proved that payments of money had been made in particular to

          AR Downer, the Scottish Champion sprinter, who not only had received £3 for ‘expenses’ in a meeting, but also had overtured for payments to several clubs.   (Downer denied this but apparently his evidence was judged to be of a ‘very untruthful and unsatisfactory character’!)

          S Duffus (Arbroath), an outstanding Scottish distance runner, who admitted to receiving £2 in the name of expenses from a club;    and

          TE Messenger (Salford), an Englisg sprinter who received £5 in the name of expenses from a club.

(3)   It was found that a club had paid a round sum to an individual resident in England on account of ‘travelling expenses’  for a party of English athletes whose hotel expenses were also defrayed;

(4)   In the west of Scotland payment of entry fees was not enforced by clubs as it ought to have been.   This was mainly found to be the case with cycling entrants;

(5)   Betting was prevalent in Edinburgh and Paisley, and was n the increase in Glasgow;

(6)   ‘Roping’ was spreading and this, together with the betting was found to be demoralising amateur sport.

All the witnesses were given the assurance that no action would be taken against clubs or individuals for any infringements which had come to light.   That immunity protected the athletes cited.   Downer and Messenger later turned professional and the former, in his ‘Running Recollections’ (which appeared after he had turned pro) lifted the lid on the hypocrisy abroad in his amateur days.    Thus in the course of a decade of its life, the Association had passed from a state of idealism to one which revealed the stark materialism which had permeated amateur sport.   But still more testing times were ahead!”

This is a fairly comprehensive list of books sent on to me by Hugh Barrow for comment.  While the list seems a long one, there are certain obvious omissions that I won’t add or tackle.   Regard it as complementary to Colin Youngson’s page on the same topic.   Hugh has divided the list into three groups – biographies, coaching books and a wee section on fiction.   Coming into the sport in 1956 as I did, there were two books available – Franz Stampfil on “Running” which I bought for 2/6d (17.5p) and Roger Bannister’s book “The Four Minute Mile” for the same price.   Both were paperback and both were published by Four Square books.   Bannister’s was educational but mainly inspirational while Stampfl (Bannister’s coach) had written a text book on distance running based almost entirely on Interval Training.   At one point in the 1980’s when one athlete complained that training was boring, I sat him down with Stampfl’s book and we went through the training for a Miler.   Twice a week in October it was 10 x 400 in a set pace; in November it was 10 x 400 twice a week at the two seconds faster pace; in December the same year it was 10 x 400 two seconds faster each; ditto in January, February and March.   Boring maybe but it worked for Bannister, Brasher, Chataway and many others and then when Stampfl emigrated to Australia, it produced Merv Lincoln (Elliott’s great Australian rival) and Ralph Doubell, Olympic 800m champion.   Not long after that Herb Elliott was the Man and Percy Cerutty the Coach, who also worked with Allan Lawrence, Albert Thomas and many other champions.   The Unbeaten Elliott set world records and won the Olympic 1500 metres but when it came his biography (The Golden Mile) was a disappointment to me – the same could not be said of Cerutty’s extensive writings on the subject of clean living, exercise and the making of champions.   Two wee Cerutty stories: first, he spoke of using the track to learn the pace and then going away to parks and golf courses to practice running at that pace until you felt you could carry it in a race and the story is told of him training Elliott in a park with the runner going easily until the coach yelled ‘Ding-a-ling-a-ling’ or some such at which point Elliott had to sprint for 60 seconds flat out;   second, he also reputedly often used to call out ‘Another 100, another 100’ when the athletes were nearing the end of one of their 400m reps so that always knew that no matter how tired they THOUGHT they were, they could always go further.   Elliott is still the hero of many milers of the time and beyond.

He was followed by New Zealand’s Peter Snell who was coached by Arthur Lydiard (athletes like Jeff Julian, Bill Baillie, Murray Halberg, Barry Magee).   Snell set a world half mile record on a grass track in the mid sixties and set more records and was also an Olympic champion.  His biography was “No Bugles, No Drums” and was better than Elliotts in my opinion.   Lydiard started the whole jogging movement – started in Australia it was taken up by Bill Bowerman in the USA and then it spread around the world.    Lydiard went on to produce world record breakers in Mexico and Finland as well as NZ.     Lydiard’s first book was “Run To The Top” and became the Bible for runners all round the world – 100 miles per week, long hill reps, planning the year down to the last hour of the last week of the year, he was regarded as infallible.   One of his runners met him one afternoon just as he was finishing his run and Lydiard was in his car: “The 100 mpw is working well, should I increase it?” asked the runner; Lydiard joked that he should increase it to 200 mpw – and the runner dutifully did.   But no good came of it.   The moral is do not joke with runners if you are a coach!    In addition to Snell, Halberg wrote an excellent book called “A Clean Pair of Heels” and there were others such as ‘Arthur’s Boys’, which my wife bought for me when she was in NZ on holiday before it was available here.     Lydiard’s own books are sprinkled all the way through the list.   And the writer Garth Gilmour did most of the writing for the books – his name appears beside Lydiard, Snell and Halberg.

I may make some more comments but have a look at the list – every book on it is still available.   You might even buy one – libraries often sell old books and they are a good source of material like this; internet book sites are also very good for all sorts of things.   I have a friend who has a series of pictures in frames with glass all the way up his stairs – he bought the photographs, several signed, on the net and then he got autographs also from the net and had them framed at the foot of the pic.   A very interesting display of his heroes signed photographs or magazine covers.    Another wee idea for you – or for a Christmas present for your loved one.   What could be nicer that a signed cover of AW in an attractive frame?

However, what came after Stampfl, Cerutty and Lydiard?   World middle distance focus moved to the United States and Bill Bowerman’s Oregon squad – Dyrol Burleson, Jim Grelle, et al.   Bowerman is maybe best known these days for the Nike Shoe and Clothing Company that he founded but he really was one of the world’s best coaches at the time and his men were among the best in the world but there was another squad from across the Atlantic and at the far east of the European continent coached by the Czechoslovakian Mihaly Igloi who was known for the huge volumes of mixed track work outs that his charges (Sandor Iharos, Stanislav Jungwirth,  Laszlo Tabori, and many others) were put through.   Igloi moved to the States latterly and among the top men he coached were Jim Beatty, a first class miler, and Bob Schul, OIlympic 5000m champion..   But while Bowerman and his athletes produced several books on what they did and how they did it, there was no such information coming in print form from the Igloi camp.   There were of course magazine articles and interviews galore but to the best of my knowledge there were no text books or biographies written.

BIOGRAPHIES
Herb Elliot – The Golden Mile 
Kiwis Can Fly 
The Legend of Lovelock
Lovelock: New Zealand’s Olympic Gold Miler
A Clean Pair Of Heels (Murray Halberg)
No Bugles No Drums (Peter Snell)
Arthur’s Boys
Golds Aren’t Easy (Dick Taylor)
Zatopek! Zatopek! Zatopek!
Deek
Steve Moneghetti: In the Long Run 
Why Die? (Percy Cerutty)
Sebastian Coe: A Life In Athletics 
Sebastian Coe: Coming Back 
Sebastian Coe: Running Free 
Duel In The Sun (Beardsley & Salazar)
Ron Clarke
The Unforgiving Minute (Ron Clarke)
The Lonely Breed
Arthur Lydiard

The Jim Ryun Story Gil Dods:

The Flying Parson Lon (Lon Myers)

The Self Made Olympian (Ron Daws)

In The Long Run (Bob Schul)

Jim Ryun: Master Of The Mile

Olympic Gold (Frank Shorter)

On The Run (Marty Liquori)

Jumbo Elliot: Maker Of Milers Maker Of Men

Marathoning (Bill Rodgers) Corbitt (Ted Corbitt) Pre

The Perfect Distance: Coe & Ovett

In The Long Run (Jim Peters)

Running To The Top (Derek Clayton)

Best Efforts (Kenny Moore)

A Cold Clear Day (Buddy Edelen)

Steve Cram: The Making Of An Athlete

Flying Feet (Brian Hewson)

The Four Minute Mile (Bannister)

The Perfect Mile

Running With The Legends Fast Tracks

: The History of Distance Running

John Walker: Champion

Run With The Champions

Ovett Steve Ovett: The Portrait Of An Athlete

The African Running Revolution

The Flying Scotsman (Eric Liddell)

Guiness Book Of The Marathon

Running To Stand Still (Sonia O’Sullivan)

Brendan Foster  Brendan Foster’s Olympic Heroes

The Long Hard Road: To The Peak And Beyond (Ron Hill)

Guiness Book of Olympic Records

The Quotable Runner

Track’s Greatest Champions World Record Breakers In Track & Field Atheltics

The Fastest Men On Earth

Running: The Power & Glory

1976 Olympic Images

Talking Track: The Best Of Track & Field News Interviews

Who’s Who In Brittish Athletics

Zola (Zola Budd)

3:59.4: The Quest For The Four Minute Mile

Olympic Track & Field (statistics)

Athletes At The Games

How They Train: Long Distances

Bowerman And The Men Of Oregon

  How Long’s The Course (Roger Black)

 Haile Gebreselassie : The Greatest

Jesse Owens: An American Life

Paula: My Story So Far

In Quest Of Gold (Jim Ryun, 2 copies, one signed by Ryun)

Michael Johnson: Slaying The Dragon

Bannister & Beyond: The Mystique Of The Four Minute Mile

Staying The Course: A Runner’s Toughest Race (Dick Beardsley)

Sub 4:00: Alan Webb And The Quest For The Fastest Mile

Running With The Buffaloes (by Chris Lear & Adam Goucher)

Great Moments In Athletics Lap Of Honour

Percy Cerutty

On the coaching front, the best books available for most of my running and coaching career were the AAA’s Instruction Manuals.   In the mid 50’s the book had a picture of Herb Elliott on the front with a nice pink strip at the top and dealt with Middle Distance Running and was by the Welshman Jim Alford.   It was interesting, spoke about shaping the year and gave some specimen schedules as well.    The replacement manual was by Bruce Tulloh and Martin Hyman in the 60’s who came up with the question, “How little do you need to do to be world class?”   What a hook to get readers into your book!   It was a good book but the one that made a real impression was by the Scotsman Norman Brook: an excellent lecturer and part of the national coaching set up he seemed to subscribe to the complex training methods of the Eastern Europeans.   Intensely practical and a real ‘user’s guide’.  But possibly the one that that every new coach should have had on his bedside table is Frank Dick’s  “But Firest …” which is a primer for those starting out on the coaching road.   In A4 format, well illustrated with line drawings it is an excellent book for its purpose.   It is unfortunately, like lots of good books, out of print now but it’s worth every club having one.   Frank Horwill, was concerned with the state of British Middle Distance running in the late 50’s and early 60’s and was a founder member of the British Milers Club which had the express aim of raising the standard of British miling.   He himself came up with the five pace system of training and advocated it tirelessly in print and in person.   He made sense of what some of us were struggling with at the time: how do the different paces relate to one another?   Alford was all very well with the advice to run faster than race pace and further than race distance, etc, but how much faster and ho much farther?   Frank with his definite definitions of what constituted 800m pace, what constituted 1500m pace etc, and what recoveries were appropriate really helped the debate along.    Peter Coe adapted a lot of Frank’s ideas and altered the terminology of the five pace training to the five-tier system.   It worked well with Seb and he too produced several books with David Martin and Seb himself.   A third top British coach was Harry Wilson who worked with Steve Ovett, Lesley Kiernan, Tony Simmons and others started from the point of view – what are the demands of the event and what does this particular athlete bring to it?   His book is one that found favour with many, many athletes and coaches in this country.

The Americans were never backward in coming forward into print with their ideas and the list below notes Bill Dellinger (Tokyo Olympics 5000m bronze medallist), Bill Bowerman, Bjorkman and Fred Wilt.    His was a very good and under-rated book.   Probably because the reader had to do some work himself: Wilt surveyed various methods of training and put them side by side.   He also divided the year up in different ways for the reader to use as was appropriate.   He was not peddling his own wares, he was selling the sport.   That was ‘Run, run, run’ but he also had a collection of training programmes of different, mostly American, runners in ‘How They Train’.

COACHING BOOKS
Run To the Top 
Jogging: Bill Bowerman 
Running to the Top
Running To The Limit: Paul Tergat
Winning Running: Peter Coe
Endurance Running: Norman Brook
Run To Win: The Training Secrets Of The Kenyan Runners
Middle Distance Running: Cliff Temple
Running The Lydiard Way
Train Hard Win Easy: The Kenyan Way
The Competitive Runner’s Training Book: Bill Dellinger
Road Racers And Their Training
Run Run Run: Fred Wilt (very old)
Cross Country Running (very old)
Tackle Athletics: Denis Watts
The Best In Track & Field From Scholastic Coach
Endurance Running Events: Norman Brook
Distance Training For Young Athletes: Lydiard
Marathoning: Manfred Steffny
The Complete Middle Distance Runner: Denis Watts, Harry Wilson, Frank Horwill 
Better Training For Distance Runners: Peter Coe, David Martin
Training Distance Runners: Peter Coe, David Martin
Long Distances: Jess Jarver
High Powered Plyometrics: Jim Radcliffe
Run With The Best: Irv Ray
Advanced Marathoning: Pete Pfitzinger
Road Racing For Serious Runners: Pete Pfitzinger
Galloway’s Book On Running
The Complete Book Of Running: James Fixx
Long Distance Runner’s Guide To Training & Racing: Gary Bjorklund
Champions In The Making: Payton Jordan
The Competitive Edge
Winning Running: Bill Dellinger
Marathon Running: Richard Nerurkar
Success In Sport & Life: Percy Cerutty
Be Fit Or Be Damned! Percy Cerutty
DeCastella On Running
Running For Fitness: Sebastian & Peter Coe
Training Lactate Pulse Rate: Peter Jansen
Running With Lydiard: Lydiard

Frank Horwill

FICTION

For reasons that I can’t fathom, the two Tom McNab books – ‘Flanagan’s Run’ about the foot race across America and ‘The Fast Men’ about the sprinters in the Old West (gives a new meaning to the fastest man in town!)  have been left off the list.

Pain
The Olympian
Once A Runner
Runners And Other Dreamers
SupernovaSprint From The Bell

Hugh followed up the above list with one which is only of Scottish publications although of a much wider interest.   We can start with the stories of some of our best known and longer lived clubs, including Clydesdale Harriers, Scotland’s premier athletic club.   A surprising omission is that of Victoria Park AAC: one would have thought that someone would have written an account of the origins and development of such a club.    How about it VP?

Club histories
Bellahouston Harriers (1992)
Clydesdale Harriers, a centenary history 1885-1985 (1988). Brian McAusland, c80 pages.
Edinburgh Southern Harriers (1947, 1972, 1987, 1997)
The Story of Edinburgh University Athletic Club (1966). CM Usher, 439 pages.
Garscube Harriers (1998)
Glasgow University Athletic Club: the story of the first hundred years (1981). RO MacKenna, 128 pages.
Glenpark Harriers (1998)
An East End Odyssey: One Hundred Years of Shettleston Harriers (2004). John Cairney, 460 pages.
First Hundred: Teviotdale Harriers Centenary, 1889-1989 (1988). John L Coltman, 200 pages.

In keeping with the theme of the website, we go on to the books by individuals who have graced the National scene: it goes wider than just endurance running and even includes the noted strong man Donald Dinnie.

Biographies and autobiographies
Scottish Athletic Celebrities Album (1886). Scottish Athletic Journal.
Marathon and Chips [Jim Alder] (1981). Arthur T McKenzie, 136 pages.
The Celebrated Captain Barclay (2001). Peter Radford, 342 pages.
Running Recollections and How to Train (1900). AR Downer, 150 pages.
Donald Dinnie, the First Sporting Superstar (1999). David Webster and Gordon Dinnie, 158 pages.
The Universe is Mine (1993). John Emmet Farrell, 92 pages.
Eric Liddell: the making of an athlete and the training of a missionary (c1945). DP Thomson, 40 pages.
Scotland’s Greatest Athlete: the Eric Liddell Story (1970 pb; 1971 hb). DP Thomson, 240 pages.
The Flying Scotsman [Eric Liddell] (1981). Sally Magnusson, 191 pages.
Eric Liddell: Pure Gold (2001). David McCasland, 333 pages.

Running My Life (2010). Donald Macgregor, 378 pages
Queen of the Track, the Liz McColgan Story (1992). Adrianne Blue, 192 pages.
The Unique Double (1983). George McNeill, 96 pages.

Peter Coe